Contact Info.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

How Apple Leverages its R&D

Apple leverages its R&D by buying 11 small companies over the last few years as is discussed in the article below.

For example,
"In 2010, Apple unveiled the first iPad. Inside of it was a powerful custom SoC designed by Apple called the A4. Later came the A5, A5X, A6, A6X, ....none of these outstanding SoCs would even be possible if Apple didn’t make a handful of strategic acquisitions over the last few years. In 2008, Apple picked up P.A. Semi ..., 2010 saw the acquisition of Intrinsity for ..., and Passif Semiconductor was purchased earlier this year"

"Anobit Technologies was founded in Israel in 2006. It developed dozens of patents for flash controllers,...Apple uses so many NAND chips in iPads, iPhones, iPods, and Macs, ...Apple acquired ... in December 2011 ... Any competitive edge Apple can find for creating cheaper and better flash-based devices holds the potential to drastically change its production chain. Flash storage is constantly improving, and it’s in Apple’s best interest to stay on the cutting edge of speed and reliability improvements."

Apple is widely thought of as a major innovator in the tech industry. While it’s true that Cupertino does employ some of the best designers and engineers in the world, Apple simply wouldn’t be where it is without a large number of strategic acquisitions. Most notably, iOS and OS X wouldn’t even exist without the purchase of NeXT.

Of course, that acquisition also brought Steve Jobs back to Apple, but that serves to highlight the strength of a smart acquisition. Not only will purchasing a company net you products and patents, but you’re gaining an influx of amazing employees as well.

In this article, I’d like to walk through a number of important acquisitions Apple has made in the last decade. From the A6 SoC through multitouch displays to Siri, Apple has relied heavily on acquired technology to build the iPhone, iPad, and iOS. It’s important to remember that purchases like these help make Apple what it is, and even the best engineers in the world need some fresh ideas from time to time.

Multitouch

FingerWorks, founded by doctoral students at the University of Delaware, focused on developing numerous devices like the TouchStream multitouch keyboard. Its quirky products never took off on a large scale, but the core technology and patents were successful enough to garner the attention of Apple. In 2005, Apple purchased the company, and effectively shut down the existing business. Two years later, the iPhone came out, and heavily featured multitouch technology.

Even if Apple was working on multitouch devices before the acquisition, it’s clear that the expertise and patent portfolio that came along with FingerWorks helped make multitouch displays become an industry standard.

App Store Genius

Chomp was founded in 2009, and served as a search engine for iOS and Android apps. The search tool was available on the web and as an app, and it enabled users to discover new and relevant apps more easily than Apple or Google’s built-in search engines. It received millions of dollars of venture capital funding, and even partnered with Verizon to build a backend for the telecom’s app store. Despite its success as an independent company, Apple was able to snatch up Chomp in early 2012 for a reported $50 million (£32 million). The Android and iOS apps disappeared, and the Chomp technology appears to be powering app searches and the App Store Genius functionality currently featured on the App Store.

Custom SoCs

In 2010, Apple unveiled the first iPad. Inside of it was a powerful custom SoC designed by Apple called the A4. Later came the A5, A5X, A6, A6X, and the rumoured upcoming A7 chip. However, none of these outstanding SoCs would even be possible if Apple didn’t make a handful of strategic acquisitions over the last few years. In 2008, Apple picked up P.A. Semi for $280 million (£180 million), 2010 saw the acquisition of Intrinsity for $121 million (£77 million), and Passif Semiconductor was purchased earlier this year for an unknown figure. With this ever increasing pool of talent and patents, Apple continues to make a name for itself in the world of SoC design.

Apple Maps

Apple’s maps have been a bit of a sore spot for the last year. Apple’s contract with Google ran out, and Apple decided to build its own solution. Of course, a few purchases helped get the ball rolling. Placebase was purchased back in July of 2009, Poly9 was added to Apple’s portfolio in July of 2010, and 3D mapping company C3 Technologies was acquired in August of 2011. This amalgam of purchases, alongside partnerships with companies like TomTom, led to the launch of Apple’s own mapping service in 2012. It wasreceived very poorly, but Apple hasn’t stopped trying. WiFiSlam was purchased in March of this year, Locationary and HopStop.com were picked up in July, and Embark was snatched up by Cupertino just a couple of weeks ago. With this much mapping prowess under its roof, Apple is clearly taking this problem very seriously.

Flash storage

Anobit Technologies was founded in Israel in 2006. It developed dozens of patents for flash controllers, and quickly gained substantial notoriety and venture funding. Since Apple uses so many NAND chips in iPads, iPhones, iPods, and Macs, it was no surprise when Apple acquired the Israeli company and its patent portfolio in December 2011 for a whopping $390 million (£250 million). Any competitive edge Apple can find for creating cheaper and better flash-based devices holds the potential to drastically change its production chain. Flash storage is constantly improving, and it’s in Apple’s best interest to stay on the cutting edge of speed and reliability improvements.

HDR photography

Apple introduced built-in HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography on the iPhone 4 with the release of iOS 4.1. By taking multiple photos at different exposures, and then merging the visual data together, photographers can end up with better looking pictures with more detail in dark and bright areas. To help improve the core technology, Apple purchased a UK-based company called IMSense for an undisclosed amount of money in September 2010. As the hardware and software of the iPhone have improved, so have the overall quality of HDR images. Now, amazing HDR techniques are available to even novice photographers using iPhones.

Face detection

Faces might just be the most important part of personal photos. Finding and identifying faces is vital for good photography software, and Apple does a decent job on most fronts. iPhoto automatically finds faces, and attempts to guess who is in each photo based on previous input. On iOS, the camera app automatically detects faces, and enables developers to easily implement live photo manipulation. Part of this clever face detection is thanks to the 2010 acquisition of a Swedish company called Polar Rose. With that core technology, any developer on iOS can take advantage of automatic face detection thanks to the built-in Core Image API.

iAds

After Google began to make serious moves against Apple in the smartphone market, Cupertino decided to get into the advertising game – seemingly in retaliation towards its former partner. After a bit of a bidding war, Google was able to secure the purchase of AdMob in 2009. Not to be outdone, Apple purchased Quattro Wireless in 2010 to compete directly against Mountain View. iAds was born out of this purchase, although it never really took off on a large scale. Even so, this acquisition remains a notable point in the fascinating breakdown of the working relationship between Google and Apple.